Earlier text: The Ripening Harvests of China

They Would Reform the World

THE number of people and organizations that are constantly springing up to advance some reform movement is truly remarkable. Practically every mail brings circulars and communications from these various reformers and reform movements and organizations.

Some of these associations are really worth while, and are doing a great deal of good in the earth. Many of them are fantastic, and represent fanciful notions, that any person may know could never be carried through in a world subject to sin, as this one is.

One of the latest is from a man who is sure he has discovered the very plan by which the world can be made, all right, and proceeds to tell all about it. If we would allow ourselves to be brought wholly under the spell of his influence, we would become convinced that if we did not fall in with his views, we would make the mistake of our lives.

In the meantime, sane Christians can stand squarely on the solid platform of the word of God.

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They may know that there is one name given through which men may have salvation, and they may also know that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we may be saved."

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the one remedy for sin, and the power of the gospel is the one agency and the only agency that can work genuine reforms. For the gospel begins its work in the hearts of men, changing their motives and their entire nature, so that they are truly reformed.

Many of the proposed reforms merely lop off some of the branches, but the gospel lays the ax at the root of the tree and destroys the evil completely.

It will be seen, in that soon-coming day when Christ is revealed in all His glory in the clouds of heaven, that they who have been trying to climb up some other way have made the great and eternal mistake.

Jesus has said, "I am the door," and that we must enter in by Him if we would have success in any reform to eradicate sin. And a reform that leaves any root of sin in the human heart is not reform at all.

IN a recent statement, John Fox, general secretary of the American Bible Society, says that 5,250,000 copies of the Bible have been distributed during the year by his society. Fifteen years ago, the society distributed only 1,500,000 Bibles a year. This is indeed a very remarkable growth in the circulation of the great Book. The issue is before the world of the fulfilment of the prophecies which show the second coming of Christ to be very near; and in view of this, it is evident the divine Father has determined that the Bible shall be in the hands of all the people, so that they may judge for themselves of the evidence.

The World Is Convinced of It

THERE is a definite conviction, in the minds of most men, that there will come an end to this world in its present sinful state, and that the second coming of Christ is sure to take place.

As an evidence that the majority of men are convinced upon this subject, let any great catastrophe occur, like an earthquake or some terrible storm, and immediately the men who are in the presence of it begin to say that the end of the world has come, or that Christ is about to come.

Men will say these things who under other conditions will indulge in all kinds of ridicule of the doctrine of the soon coming of Christ, or that this sinful world may be brought to a termination.

But why, when they are placed under the terrors of some great calamity, do they immediately begin to cry out that the end of the world has come? It shows the strong power of the action of God's Spirit through His word. God's word has very clearly said that Christ will come again. Definite prophecies point out the event. Men and women have been earnestly preaching and teaching these things. They have been showing this clear evidence. And facts warrant the statement that thousands upon thousands of people are affected by the evidence, or possibly are convinced by it, who refuse to yield to it.

The Lord will finally come, according to His promises. And when He comes, some will be ready to meet Him; for "it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25:9.

This shows a class who would be looking for the coming of Christ, and who were brought before the vision of the prophet. When the great day finally arrives, they exultantly cry out, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us."

Of another class in that great day, it is said: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6:15-17.

It rests with us now to decide which of these classes we will be in. Will we be among those who stand ready to be clothed with immortality, and who will call out in exultant delight, "This is our God; we have waited for Him"? or will we be among that class who will call for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them? Our course will elect where we will stand in that day. We will stand in one place or the other. There will be no neutral ground.

A Little Foretaste

CURRENT news despatches give the information that "Mrs. Albert H. Gilbert, president of the Home Protection Equal Suffrage Club," has issued a call "to wives of union men in Cleveland to march on the Euclid Avenue Baptist church, known as the Rockefeller church, as a protest to a sermon preached last Sunday by the pastor in which he upheld John D. Rockefeller in refusing to act in the Colorado mine trouble."

Demonstrations of the character proposed here by Mrs. Gilbert, together with demonstrations of a similar character in New York recently, are a sort of foretaste of what is in store for the wealthy men, only these things that are now taking place are merely preliminary. They are gathering and concentrating upon individuals the feelings that have already been stirred up against them.

There is an immense amount of sentiment of ill will created against the rich. This has been engendered by public speeches, by newspaper and magazine articles, as well as books that have been written.

Many men are indulging in theories concerning these things. But all the theories to one side, the seed-sowing of the past generation is about to result in a definite harvest; and it is very interesting to keep in mind the fact that a pen picture of what this harvest will be, was made by the apostle James nearly two thousand years ago. Read carefully the fifth chapter of his letter. He calls attention to the weeping and howling of the men of wealth who have kept back the hire of the laborers that have reaped down their fields. He tells of how they have lived in pleasure upon the earth, and of their wanton, extravagant expenditures, and that, too, in the face of crying want.

We are in the midst of the very conditions described by the apostle-prophet. The seed-sowing is already largely in the past. The harvest-time is here. We will soon see this world plunged into such scenes of anarchy as beggar description.

All men ought to know this from the simple standpoint of the philosophy of our social conditions; but one who believes the Bible, and who will take the pains to study it, may know this from the doubly strong standpoint of both the conditions as they exist, and the prophecies that foretell these things. But if we know of these prophecies, the picture is not a gloomy one; for in the midst of the scenes of strife and anarchy, the Lord will appear in all His glory to end it forever.

Storm Disaster in Southern Japan

In the disastrous storm that swept over southern Japan on June 5, several hundred small boats are said to have been wrecked, and many people drowned. The report says that a hundred houses were blown down in Nagasaki alone. Disaster is following disaster in all parts of the world.

Socks Better Than Whisky

There would be more sense and less harm in treating a friend to a pair of socks than to a drink of whisky.—California Voice.

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